Sound

English Pronunciation

Vowels: oo sound /u/

Listen to the oo sound

oo sound illustration

How to pronounce the oo sound

To create the oo sound, the lips are pulled into a tense, small circle. In addition, the back of the tongue is raised to a high position and sides of the tongue may touch the top teeth at the back of the mouth.

Common oo sound spellings

spelling

example

other pronunciations for spelling

oo

soon food school

other u (good)

u_e (VCe)

rude intrude salute

long u (cute)

ue[1]

clue true glue

long u (fuel)

ew

drew chew flew

long u (few)

[1] ue spelling
The -ue spelling is silent when it occurs at the end of a word and follows the letters g, ng, or q (examples include the words fatigue, tongue, and unique). An exception is the word argue, which ends in a long u sound.